Sunday, January 12, 2014

There are good one-point games, and there are bad one-point
games.The Washington Capitals
experienced the latter in losing a 2-1 decision to the Buffalo Sabres in the
freestyle competition for the second time in two weeks.

The Capitals could not even take solace in the fact that the
goal that they scored was even a goal that they scored.Washington opened the scoring, as it were, 11
minutes into the first period on a play that started when Jason Chimera took a
pass from Joel Ward at the Buffalo blue line.Chimera skated down the left wing boards with Sabre defenseman Mark
Pysyk keeping himself between Chimera and the Sabre net.What Pysyk could not do, however, was close a
passing lane that Chimera exploited to get the puck to the front of the Buffalo
net where Marcus Johansson was headed.The pass never reached Johansson, though.Center Brian Flynn, trying to do the right
thing by backchecking Johansson, managed only to get his stick on the pass,
redirecting it past goalie Ryan Miller and into his own net.

That goal might have stood up for the rest of the period –
the rest of the game, in fact.However,
Tom Wilson was whistled for a charging penalty at the 17:28 mark.With Wilson in the box, Buffalo converted the
power play opportunity with just 1:51 left in the period when Tyler Ennis
pulled the puck loose from a group of bodies in front of goalie Philipp
Grubauer, then lifted it over a sprawling Grubauer to tie the game.

That was it.For the
second time this season the Caps and the Sabres played 65 minutes to a 1-1
draw.And, for the second time this
season the Sabres would ride Ryan Miller’s perfect slate in the Gimmick,
stopping all three attempts he faced, until they could get a goal of their own,
this time courtesy of Cody Hodgson, who ended matters in the third round when
he snapped the puck over Grubauer’s left pad and into the back of the net.

Other stuff…

-- Buffalo has defeated just two teams on two occasions this
season, the Toronto Maple Leafs and now the Capitals.

-- Hey, how’s that second line experiment working?Nicklas Backstrom, Brooks Laich, and Troy
Brouwer combined for four shots (Laich had a shorthanded shot on goal), three
penalties, and no points. In three games that makes 13 shots at even strength among
them, four penalties, and one point, that one recorded on an unassisted goal by
Nicklas Backstrom off a turnover against Toronto.

-- Ryan Miller has played 130 minutes against the Caps this
season and has stopped 77 of 79 shots.That is a 0.92 goals against average and a .975 save percentage.Oh, and he stopped all nine trick shot
attempts in the two games for good measure.

-- Philipp Grubauer has not been quite as conspicuous as
Miller in these games, but he has been almost as effective.In his two games facing Miller he stopped 46
of 48 shots in 130 minutes, a 0.92 goals against average and a .958 save
percentage.

-- You could say the Caps skated in bad luck.With the clock ticking down to two minutes
left in regulation Miller made a stupendous stick save of a point blank attempt
by Mikhail Grabovski, getting the bottom edge of his blade on the puck as it
was about to cross the goal line, deflecting it out of the air and past the post.Then, with 53 seconds left in the game it
appeared that the Caps finally solved Miller, courtesy of Karl Alzner, of all
people.However, just before Alzner
found the back of the net, the referee signaled a penalty against Nicklas
Backstrom for tripping (nudging, bumping, jostling) Cody Hodgson.Finally, in the Gimmick, Alex Ovechkin had a
chance, maneuvering Miller down to the ice, but he could not lift a forehand
over Miller’s left pad, and the lanky goaltender padded the puck away.But hey, c’mon… they needed luck?Against Buffalo??

-- The Caps did not get much in the way of power play
opportunities, two of them in fact.Not
that they did anything with what they had.One shot on goal, that one coming from John Carlson.The Caps finished with more shorthanded shots
on goal (two).

-- Connor Carrick recorded his first NHL career assist on
the Chimera goal.More impressive,
perhaps, was that he finished the game with three more minutes of ice time at
even strength (16:44) than either Carlson (13:45) or Alzner (13:44).

-- Carlson and Alzner, it should be noted, was the pair with
the least amount of even strength ice time in this game.Mike Green and Dmitry Orlov each had more
than 20 minutes of even strength ice time alone.

-- Aaron Volpatti had a high-energy evening, six hits
credited in just 7:37 of ice time.What
is more surprising is that Nicklas Backstrom was credited with the next highest
number of hits for the Caps (five).

-- Failing to get an extra standings point in regulation or
overtime, the Caps are once more tied with the New York Islanders for last in
the Metropolitan Division in regulation and overtime wins (14).

One can imagine at the end of this season regretting the two
standings points the Caps left on the table with the pair of trick shot losses
to the worst team in the league.Yes,
Ryan Miller is certainly a world class goalie, but the Caps had their chances,
too, especially in this game, and did not bury them.The way things stand on this Sunday evening
is that there are now five points separating the second-place Capitals and the
seventh-place Columbus Blue Jackets in the Metro Division.

That tight bunching of teams puts pressure on the Caps to
lift their game to a level not displayed against the Sabres.San Jose and Pittsburgh are next up on the
schedule, back-to-back games at that.Then the Caps get a couple of road tests in the division, at Columbus
and at the New York Rangers.How daunting
is this part of the schedule?The Caps are 1-15-1 in their last
17 meetings against San Jose.Pittsburgh
is 18-3-1 since they lost consecutive games before Thanksgiving.Columbus has won three in a row and four of
their last five contests, including two shutouts.The Rangers have the same recent record –
three straight wins and four in their last five games, and they still have
Henrik Lundqvist, as if Ryan Miller was not enough.

This is a week coming up that, when the ice chips settle,
could be very ugly or a turning point of the season for the Caps.It might have been made more important for
those two standings points the Caps left on the table to the Buffalo Sabres in the last two weeks.

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The Washington Capitals enter the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).

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